If a fish or a human got injured miles away from the shore in the open ocean and the blood from the injury disperses slowly through millions of litres of water. There is an animal inside the water without the requirement of any sound or splash or movement begins to change their direction. It's Sharks, their ability isn't a myth or magic. They are gifted with the most refined sensory systems in the natural world, science says it builds through millions of years of evolution. So, how do they detect a single drop of blood in an ocean that's that vast? In this article, we are going to find the answer to this question.
Smell So Powerful, It Redefines Detection
Sharks have the capacity to detect one part of blood per million parts of seawater. Their olfactory bulbs (essential for the sense of smell) are proportionally 40 times larger than humans'. So Sharks don't smell with one nostril; they have two separate nasal openings. Blood reaches each side of the nasal openings at slightly different times. Their brain uses this delay to determine the direction of their prey, not just its presence. Sharks don’t just smell blood. They track it, the way humans track sound with two ears.
Smell Is Just the Beginning
Sharks are gifted with electroreception. Every muscle movement of organisms produces a signal of a weak electrical field. And sharks possess tiny organs called ampullae of Lorenzini. Which helps them to detect electric signals. They can sense electrical signals as small as 0.0000001 volts which allows them to track their prey even when the water is murky, where visibility is zero or even if the prey is buried under sand. By the time a shark reaches the source of blood, it is no longer relying on smell. It follows electricity.
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FAQs
Q1. What smell do sharks hate?Ans: Smell of a dead shark
Q2. What attracts a shark to a human?
Ans: Sound, rather than sight or smell.
Q3. Did they find Bethany's arm in the shark?
Ans: They found no evidence of Bethany's ar
